By Sean Griffin on SwimSwam
2026 CHINESE NATIONAL SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS
Tuesday, June 16 – Sunday, June 21, 2026 Hangzhou, China LCM (50 meters) Live Results Daily Recaps: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3Thirteen-year-old Yu Zidi continues to make headlines.
On the fourth night of the 2026 Chinese National Swimming Championships, the 13-year-old phenom threw down a time of 4:30.79 to dominate the women’s 400m IM final, dropping over 2.5 seconds from her former best of 4:33.33 to rank eighth in world history and second in this season’s world rankings.
2025-2026 LCM Women 400 IM
SummerCANMCINTOSH06/054:27.312Yu ZidiCHN4:30.7906/193JennaFORRESTERAUS4:31.4706/134Ke WenxiCHN4:33.5906/195Mary-Sophie Harvey CAN4:34.2905/28View Top 26»All-Time Performers, Women’s 400 IM (LCM)
Summer McIntosh (Canada) – 4:23.65 (swum in 2025 at 18 years old) Katinka Hosszu (Hungary) – 4:26.36 (swum in 2016 at 27 years old) Kaylee McKeown (Australia) – 4:28.22 (swum in 2024 at 22 years old) Ye Shiwen (China) – 4:28.43 (swum in 2012 at 16 years old) Stephanie Rice (Australia) – 4:29.45 (swum in 2008 at 20 years old) Kirsty Coventry (Zimbabwe) – 4:29.89 (swum in 2008 at 24 years old) Li Xuanxu (China) – 4:30.43 (swum in 2009 at 15 years old) Yu Zidi (China) – 4:30.79 (swum today at 13 years old)*When comparing Yu’s swim tonight to her previous PB, she simply took it out much faster and held on through the freestyle leg. She was a second faster on fly, just under two seconds quicker on backstroke, and nearly three-quarters of a second faster on breast, before closing just under a second slower on the final 100.
Splits Comparison
New PB Previous PB Butterfly 1:00.60 1:01.56 Backstroke 1:08.31 1:10.18 Breaststroke 1:19.15 1:19.81 Freestyle 1:02.73 1:01.78 Final Time 4:30.79 4:33.33Earlier in the meet, Yu won the 200m fly (2:06.12) and 400m free (4:05.06) and touched second in the 200m IM (2:09.33). While she’s been as quick as 2:05.71 and 2:07.41 in the 200m fly and 200m IM, respectively, her performance in the 400 free was a major lifetime best. Coming into the competition, Yu owned a personal best time of 4:10.73, set back in 2024 when she was still 11, and she had lowered that to 4:09.79 in the prelims on Thursday.
Yu, who turned 13 in October, had a series of mind-bending swims throughout 2025 while she was 12, including earning a trio of 4th-place finishes at the World Championships in Singapore. She first started making headlines in May at the China National Championships in Shenzhen, where she won the 200m fly (2:06.83) and 400m IM (4:35.53) and placed 2nd in the 200m IM (2:10.63), qualifying her for the World Championships while going well under the existing 11-12 age group records in the United States–for both boys and girls.
Come Worlds, Yu placed 4th in the 200m fly, clocking 2:06.43 to miss the podium by just 32 one-hundredths of a second, while in the 200m IM, her time of 2:09.21 in the final earned her 4th and saw her finish just six one-hundredths shy of bronze medalist Mary-Sophie Harvey (2:09.15). In the 400m IM, Yu picked up her third 4th-place finish of the meet, swimming 4:33.76 to finish half-a-second off the podium, with Jenna Forrester and Mio Narita tying for silver in 4:33.26.
In addition to her individual swims, Yu also swam the lead-off leg of the Chinese women’s 4×200m free relay in the prelims, clocking 1:59.28, and then the team went on to win bronze in the final. That made the Yu the youngest swimmer ever to win a medal at the World Championships, having already become the youngest to reach a final when she did so at the beginning of the meet in the 200 IM.
Yu went on to thrown down a massive 2:07.41 in the 200m IM at the Chinese National Games in November, breaking the Asian and Chinese Record of 2:07.57 set by Ye Shiwen at the 2012 Olympic Games en route to winning the gold medal. That mark has since been snatched by countrywoman Yu Yiting, who threw down a 2:06.82 to snag the win over Yu earlier this week.
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